Hitman
by Takashidaimao
Summary: Gohan's attempt to help a man escape an assassin ends in disaster. Currently re-writing. Yaoi warning for later on.
1. Chapter 1

Gohan found himself sprinting down the hallway of the deserted office building at eleven o'clock at night, dressed as the Great Saiyaman. He was still quite confused why he was here. The owner of the company had called for him just ten minutes ago. It seemed the business man was afraid someone would come to kill him that night. Once the Saiyan boy reached the main office, he skidded to a stop and quickly threw open the door. "I'm here, sir! You're safe now!" he proclaimed loudly in that fake hero voice of his. There was a long silence in the room just before Gohan decided to look around. He didn't see anyone there at first, but soon spotted something quivering behind the large desk. The raven haired boy blinked, approaching the desk cautiously. Suddenly...

"S-stay back!! D-don't kill me!! Whatever those sons 'a bitches said was a lie, I swear!! I was never involved in any of that!!" a man's voice shrieked as a small desk lamp was chucked past Gohan's head. This made the teen jump slightly, but soon calmed back down again. "Ummm... It's me, the Great Saiyaman. You.. uhh... asked me to come here?" he said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck a bit. Was he perhaps mistaken? No, Videl wouldn't mess up with something as serious as this. That reminded him, though. Videl, after informing him of the CEO's request, was rather adamant about coming along to help him. He tried everything he could to convince her otherwise, but that girl was just so damn stubborn. The only reason she wasn't there beside him now was merely because she couldn't keep up with him. Suddenly, he was brought back from his little flashback, hearing the frightened man's shaky voice once again. "Ah. T-terribly sorry about that, m'boy. I've been quite j-jumpy lately, you see..." he explained. As the man spoke, Gohan took the opportunity while he was talking to examine him for a moment. He was average size, about an even six feet tall. He had somewhat of a young face for a man in such a high position, but his gray hair gave his age away. Still, he couldn't be much older than forty at the very most. He wore a navy blue business suit that looked a bit wrinkled. Of course, that was probably due to him hiding under his desk. "Now, all I'd like you to do is stand out there in the hall and not let anyone in, got it?!" the man said, regaining his composure a bit. Gohan merely nodded and left the room, closing the door tightly behind him.

This was all rather strange to Gohan. Why on Earth did that man need _him_ of all people there? The building was already crawling with police, surely anyone that's come to kill the man wouldn't get past _all_ of them. The Saiyan boy merely shrugged it off, though, thinking the man was just being overly paranoid. Still, he would stay, not one to leave someone in danger. As he stood by the door, he got to thinking. He started to think something was a bit off. How did he find out he was going to be murdered anyway? He'd never made that clear, even to the police. However, the young Saiyan decided not to wonder too much about that any longer.

Gohan ended up waiting for a good two and a half hours for anyone to show up. At that point, he felt his eyes drooping and his attentiveness severely decreasing with the passing minutes. It was at that point that a certain person decided to make their appearance. Standing in the shadows of the narrow alleyway between the guarded building and the next one was man. All you could see was a silhouette, though, as he was standing well away from any revealing light, but some features still stood out. He stood approximately 200 centimeters tall, wore a black suit and had a bald head. Beyond that, you could tell nothing of him. He chanced a quick peek around the corner at the fleet of police cruisers parked just in front of the building, but quickly pulled back before he could be seen. He then made his way calmly along the side of the building until he came to the fire escape, at which point he made quite an impressive, yet seemingly effortless, leap up to grab the ladder. After hoisting himself up, he flew up the metal staircase quite skillfully, managing not to make a sound. Every so often, he'd press himself against the wall just between the windows, narrowly missing getting spotted by one of the officers inside.

The figure continued upward until he reached the top floor, at which point he waited below the window until the coast was clear before jumping in. He made a bee line for the room the CEO was in, his footsteps remaining absolutely silent. As he prepared to round the corner, however, he spotted Gohan and quickly retreated back to the other side where he wouldn't be seen. He hadn't expected _him_ to be here. Now he'd need a diversion. It didn't need to be much, just enough so he could slip past Gohan unseen. Rounding a few more corners, the unknown assassin made his way to the middle of the building and dashed into an empty office. Once there, he bent down beside the desk and reached into his jacket, pulling out two long strings of fire crackers, one with a slightly longer fuse at the beginning, and placed them in the trash bin. He then took out a lighter and lit the fuses before quickly dashing out of the room again. Yes, it was a very simple and cheap trick, but why improve upon that which already works? Not long after he made his way back near where Gohan was assigned to stand, they went off. It sounded enough like gunshots to make the police rush to that spot. Of course, having lit them on the inside of that metal trash bin added a nice reverberating metal ping to it all, making it slightly more convincing.

Gohan, too, fell for the distraction to a point, running to the first turn in the hall to try to see what was going on. The mysterious man took that opportunity to slip into the CEO's office, closing the door carefully as to not make a sound. The business man was, of course, cowering behind that large desk of his. The man approached silently and stopped at the wall of windows behind, glancing at the squad cars below. The CEO froze, looking up at the man's back, unable to tell who he was due to the bright lights from the ground below. He then looked at his hands. Black leather gloves. There was no doubt about it. He was a hitman. panicking, the CEO stumbled to his feet, quickly opened his desk drawer and retrieved a small handgun. As the hitman looked over his shoulder at him, he pointed the gun at his would-be assassin's head and pulled the trigger.

Gohan whirled back around when he heard a genuine gunshot, followed by a loud shout of pain. The cry seemed to cut short strangely, though, leaving nothing but silence. The young Saiyan burst into the room in time to see the hitman standing there, his back to the door, the CEO hanging by his neck at the man's hands, his feet a good meter off the ground. The hitman jerked the wire he's wrapped around his target's neck one more time before the CEO's body went limp. The hitman, target still in hand, glanced over his shoulder. Gohan couldn't help but stare at the scene before him. It was horrifying. Yet, as that man turned to look at him, the red and blue lights from the squad cars creating an amazing aura around him as his form remained a tall, dark, mysterious silhouette, he couldn't help but think that it looked so damn cool. Like something straight out of a spy movie. He then thought himself a terrible person for actually thinking a murderer looked cool and charged at the killer.

However, Gohan could not have anticipated what happened next. It was all so fast, yet everything looked as if it was moving in slow motion. The hitman took the CEO's body in his right hand and tossed him through one of the large panes of glass that made the windows. Still using the momentum from that, he turned around, looking as if he were floating, and struck Gohan hard on the side of his neck with the side of his hand just as the Saiyan teen reached him. Gohan hadn't anticipated this at all. He thought it would just be a normal human, if anything at all, but here he found himself slipping into darkness with a single strike. As Gohan fell unconscious, still seemingly floating in midair, the hitman wrapped his right arm around the young Saiyans waist and, just as his right foot touched the floor once again, he took a leap out of the already broken window.

All of this had happened so fast that gravity had not yet taken effect on the dead body previously chucked through the window. As the hitman leaped out with Gohan held tightly under one arm, surrounded by shards of glass that looked like tiny crystal suspended in the air, a white aura suddenly burst to life around him, shattering the glass further and scattering the shrapnel in all directions. He took off so fast, the police below never saw him, or Gohan. When the body finally reached the ground below, they were already long gone.

Gohan had no idea how long he was out for. Five minutes? A few hours? Perhaps even a day or two? He had no way of knowing. When he awoke, however, he found himself staring up at a dark ceiling, a series of colorful lights dancing across it. It took him a moment to figure out the lights came from a TV in the room he was in, and not from the police squad cars from before. As he sat up in the bed he didn't remember getting into, he discovered that he was no longer wearing his Saiyaman outfit. He was instead only wearing a pair of old jeans with rips in the knees. It didn't take him very long to figure out that they were, in fact, a pair of his own jeans that he could have sworn he'd lost months ago. It may have made a tiny sliver of sense if he'd been in his own bedroom, but he wasn't. He'd never been in this room before in his life. What really made him confused wasn't the fact that some strange person that had just murdered someone had kidnapped him, changed his clothes, and put him in some strange room. No, he could process that just fine. That didn't mean he didn't think it was the most creepy thing that had ever happened to him, he just knew that was what most likely had happened. No, what was strange to him was that this room held an extremely familiar scent, particularly the pillow and sheets on the bed, but he couldn't quite place where he'd smelled it before. _That_ was the part that didn't make sense.

His thoughts were abruptly cut short, however, as the door to the room suddenly opened. Gohan's heart practically leaped up out of his throat he was so surprised. He stared up at the figure. The room was too dark for him to see his face, but he immediately recognized that silhouette. He remained silent, watching as the man sat down at the end of the bed just in front of the TV, a puff of cigarette smoke emerging from his mouth before he finally spoke.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked in a deep, growl like voice. Gohan blinked. Was he feeling alright? That was it? Not 'I'm going to have to kill you now, too'? And, though he didn't want to admit it, he felt comfort in this man's gruff voice, almost as if he'd heard it a thousand times before speaking similar words of concern and comfort. Wait... as a matter of fact, he could have sworn he had! "Wh-who are you?!" he demanded, to frightened and confused to think properly at the moment. He saw the man stare directly in his direction for a long moment before replying. "You don't honestly believe I think you're that stupid, do you, Gohan?"

Gohan merely blinked in reply. What can I say, the kid takes after his father sometimes. The man sighed and hung his head a little. "You've got to be kidding me..." he grumbled as he got up and flipped the light switch on. Gohan was momentarily blinded by the sudden arrival of light, but after quickly shielding his eyes with his hand, he managed to get a look at his captor. He let out a sigh of relief, instantly recognizing him even before he turned around to face him again. Now he felt really stupid.

"Oh, Piccolo-san! It's just you!" he said, truly relieved. Piccolo gave him a 'gee, thanks...' look before moving to stand beside where he lay in the bed. "I'm so glad, really. I had this horrible dream about this spy lookin' guy killing some company boss and taking me away! It was so weir--" Gohan suddenly stopped when he spotted a rather odd look in his old friend's eyes. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen that expression on him before. He looked sad, apologetic, and dead serious all at the same time. Then, he suddenly caught the middle of the news report playing on the television. "--fell from the twentieth floor of his company building after several shots were fired. Local hero "Great Saiyaman" went missing immediately prior to the murder. He is the only suspect at this time, but the police are investigating any other possibilities. Anyone with any leads as to who the Great Saiyaman is are asked to report to the police so he may be brought in for questioning."

Gohan stared at the TV for a long time in disbelief. "Th-this... This can't be happening..." he thought out loud. _He_ was a suspect?! Or rather, he was _the_ suspect?! He turned his gaze up at Piccolo, looking as if he were on the verge of tears. "Y-you must have seen who really did it, right?! It was whoever was carrying me away! You saw, right?! You can tell them who really did it!" he begged desperately, grabbing firmly onto his old mentor's shirt sleeves. All he got, however, was silence and that same somber look from before. "P-Piccolo-san... Y-you..." he stuttered, his eyes widening a bit. He was starting to catch onto the truth, but refused to accept it as just that. "Y-you did see him, right Piccolo-san...?" he asked again, practically up to his neck in denial.

Piccolo suddenly gritted his teeth and slapped away Gohan's hands. His eyes remained glued to the ground, unable to face his old student. There was a long, painful silence. "P-Piccolo-san... Y-you couldn't have..." Gohan said in disbelief, those tears he'd been holding back finally coming up to the surface. Piccolo let out a sigh, crushing the still-lit cigarette that he'd been neglecting in his hand. "I'm sorry, Gohan..."

After Gohan had finished his crying and Piccolo promised over and over again to give him an explanation, the young Saiyan found himself sulking at his Namekian mentor's dinner table, still only wearing those old jeans of his. He still couldn't wrap his mind around it. _Piccolo_? A professional killer? That was just insane! Of course, he hadn't seen him in such a long time and a lot had changed about him. He never remembered Piccolo smoking, or dressing like a human, or actually living in a house. He was starting to pray all over again that this was a bad dream. Gohan looked up after a while to see Piccolo walking up to the table.

"Here..." the Namekian grunted, placing a glass of water in front of his student. Gohan took it slowly, but didn't drink it. He merely stared down at it, his fingers fidgeting around the glass a bit. Once Piccolo sat down across from him, he looked up again. His mentor was wearing a loose white long sleeve shirt that was no longer tucked into his jeans, the first two buttons undone. Gohan let out a heavy sigh. He really didn't want to even mention it, but he really wanted some answers. Eventually, he gathered the courage to ask.

"Piccolo-san... How long have you been keeping this a secret?" he asked meekly, his voice small. There was a long, uncomfortable pause as Piccolo seemed to think for a long moment. Gohan looked down at his water again. "Six years." the answer came suddenly, causing the Saiyan to look up again. Six years.. that was a lot longer than he was hoping. "Six? That was just a year after the whole thing with Cell... Why so long? And why'd you do it in the first place, Piccolo-san? Y-you're a nice person! You shouldn't be killing people like this!" he replied, starting to get upset again. He just couldn't stand it. As far as he was concerned, there was no excuse for such a thing, especially from the man he'd looked up to for so long. Piccolo let out a sigh. "Calm down, Goha--""NO!!"

Gohan had suddenly rose to his feet and slammed his fists down against the table. He was now glaring at Piccolo, unable to contain his outrage any longer. "I will not calm down!! You've been killing innocent people for years without telling me! How the hell can I calm down?!" he roared. At that, Piccolo merely stared at him, his face it's normal expression. After a moment, however, he calmly rose to his feet and made his way over to stand next to the young Saiyan. Suddenly, his hand flew forward, grabbed the boy by the shoulder, and slammed his back into the wall. "I said calm the fuck down, dammit!" the Namekian roared, causing Gohan to freeze, staring wide eyed at his old friend. It was very rare for Piccolo to raise his voice at him, so he took it hard whenever it happened. Now even more so than usual. "P-Piccolo-san..." he managed to stammer out as Piccolo released his shoulder. He then turned his back to the boy, folding his arms across his chest.

"What makes you think I kill innocent people?" he asked finally. Gohan blinked. What was he talking about? Of course that man was innocent, wasn't he? He hadn't done anything as far as Gohan was concerned, anyway. After getting no verbal response, Piccolo continued. "I only kill people who kill others. That's my rule." he explained briefly, glancing back over his shoulder at the boy. Gohan blinked again. On the inside, he was relieved. He knew Piccolo couldn't be evil. That was impossible. And while he still didn't approve of his methods, he was glad he wasn't going around killing just anyone. But there was something he didn't get. "But... what about that man earlier? He didn't seem bad at all to me..."

"Quit the stupid act, Gohan." he sighed, turning to face the boy, his expression calm as ever. "He knew I was coming for him. You should be proof enough of that." he stated, referring to Gohan being called there to guard him. "Did he ever bother to tell you why he thought I was coming to kill him?" Gohan quickly shook his head back and forth like a little five year old. "Because he had been warned by someone, obviously. Warned that he'd done something so vile that he'd be hunted for sure. Do you understand?" Gohan nodded stupidly. He wanted so very much to believe Piccolo was still the good person he always thought he was that he was willing to believe anything without question. Piccolo noticed and rose a brow at him, but didn't call his eagerness to agree into question.

"Right then. Now, about this 'Great Saiyaman' business..." the Namekian started again, taking a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and sticking one in his mouth. Gohan, however, interrupted before he could continue. "Oh yeah... the whole suspect thing... what am I supposed to do now?" he whined, sitting back down at the table like the scene a moment ago never occurred. Piccolo shook his head a bit after he lit his cigarette, staying where he stood. "You're going to abandon that fruity getup and stop this stupid super hero nonsense, got it?" It wasn't a question. It was more like an order. Gohan looked up at him. "Wh-what? But, Piccolo-san, I want to help people!" he retorted. "Well, you can't very well do that if you're suspected of murder, now can you?" came the immediate rebuttal. Seeing the sad look in Gohan's eyes, he then placed a reassuring hand on his student's shoulder. He may have only donned that costume recently, but Piccolo knew how the boy felt about it. He was proud of finally being recognized as a hero that helped people, and it was not something he could just abandon all at once. However, if he wanted to continue his life as it was now, that's exactly what he'd have to do. "Toss that costume in the gutter somewhere, kid. As of now, The Great Saiyaman is dead."


	2. Chapter 2

The next day at school was quite possibly the longest he'd ever encountered. All anyone was talking about was the incident with that CEO. And even though he knew none of them had a clue he was the Great Saiyaman, he still felt as though they knew it was him they were talking about. "Oh, ya heard 'bout it too, huh?" one boy said to his friend as the young Saiyan passed him in the hall before class. "Yeah, I never woulda thought the Great Saiyaman coulda done somethin' like this. I mean, tossin' the guy from the twentieth floor? That's pretty harsh, dude." the other teen replied once Gohan reached his locker nearby. "Y'know what I heard, though... That guy he killed was part o' some gang." "What?! That's bullshit!" At this point, Gohan's ears perked up. Piccolo _had_ said that man was bad, but had never specified how. Maybe this was it?

"Naw, naw, s'true! I heard they found a tattoo of a black snake on 'im. Somethin' 'bout a gang symbol." "Black snake? It got wings an' is wrapped around a sword?" "Yeah, that sounds like it." "Sounds like th' Black Dragon to me." "Black Dragon? Whazzat?" "You fuckin' kiddin' me?! They're, like, the frickin' _Mafia_, man! Wha, you been livin' under a rock fer the past ten years?!" "No! I just... don't pay attention t'shit, is all! you know that!" "Dumbass..." The two continued their conversation far off down the hall, but Gohan had heard enough. He personally knew nothing about the Black Dragon, not being one to watch TV or gossip at all, but he had a good idea what the Mafia did. He let out a sigh of relief. So far, it seemed, Piccolo was telling the truth.

After retrieving his books from his locker, Gohan nudged the door closed with his elbow and started off towards his first class. He hadn't gotten two inches, however, when a hand shot across his path and slammed into the neighboring locker, cutting him off. Gohan peeked over his books up at a certain blond-haired jock. "Hey there, Solo. You seen Chubacca lately?" Sharpner teased with his usual smirk on his face, using one of his more recent nicknames to address him. Go-Han Solo had to be one of the stupidest ones he'd been called all year. However, he didn't complain. After all, it was better than last week's Peter Piss'n Pants. He didn't get that one either. "So... you have a fun weekend? Anything eventful happen?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes slightly. Gohan narrowed his eyes right back.

It was no secret, between the two of them anyway, that Sharpner had long suspected him of being the Great Saiyaman. And it didn't take a genius to know that was very bad for him. If that damn blond played his cards right, weather it be towards blackmail or immediately ratting him out, he'd have Gohan right where he wanted him. After a long staredown, Gohan opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted. "Gohan! There you are, you idiot!" came Videl's voice from behind him. He let out a small sigh of relief. Ah, Videl to the rescue. He watched as she walked past him and got right up in Sharpner's face, showing no fear. "Quit pickin' on him, Sharp, or I'll kick your ass twice!" she said with her hands on her hips. Sharpner gave her a face, but didn't do anything. He merely turned around and walked away. Before Gohan had the chance to thank her, he felt himself being pulled away by his arm. Once Videl had dragged him all the way up to the roof, she turned around and slapped him across the face.

Gohan stumbled backward a bit, dropping his books in the process. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" she shrieked, her face absolutely livid. He didn't have to ask what she was talking about. He wasn't that damn stupid. "Look, Videl, it's not what you think! Honest! I didn't do that!" he retorted in his defense, holding his hands up in order to ward off any further slaping. "I know that, nimrod!!" she shouted back. Gohan blinked. Wait, what? "Ummm... then why are you hitting me?" he asked with a blank look on his face. "Fer running away and making them think you did, that's why!! What, you'd rather be known as a murderer than an incompetent moron?! I'm in it deep for this, too, because of you!" At that, Gohan lowered his head a bit, staring at the ground. "I'm really sorry... I didn't mean to leave, honest. It's just--" The young Saiyan was cut off by the sound of the first school bell. He'd never been so glad to hear that bell in his life. He had no idea how he could have explained why he suddenly went missing. Not without exposing his oldest and most trusted friend, anyway. Quickly, Gohan gathered up his books and sprinted for the door. "We can talk after school! See ya!" he said hurriedly as he ran down the stairs, leaving Videl sitting alone on the roof.

Gohan kept his head low all day during class. Even so, he felt Sharpner's eyes glaring at him from behind all day. The Saiyan teen found himself staring up at the clock for hours, praying for the hands to move faster. As soon as that last bell would ring, he'd get out of there as fast as possible. Finally, after what seemed like years, the bell rang signaling the end of the day. Gohan was out of there before anyone even started gathering their things. He must have taken too long putting everything back in his locker, though, as Sharpner and Videl caught up with him in the front courtyard, that other blond girl following closely behind. He hadn't really bothered to remember her name. Erasa or something like that. She just had her normal ditsy look on her face, though, as the other two had more serious expressions. Sharpner was the first to reach him and lifted him up by the neck of his shirt.

"Hey, hey! Where ya going in such a hurry, huh? Got somewhere you need ta be?" he asked with a smirk, his face only inches from Gohan's. He remained silent, however, just staring up blankly into the blond's blue eyes. After a moment, Videl got fed up with it and pulled the two apart. "Cut it out, you two!" she snapped, aiming it mostly at Sharpner. It's not that she didn't want to know what was going on, she just didn't want the subject brought up in public. Gohan took a few steps backward, away from the small group. "Look, I gotta get going. My mom's expecting me home, y'know?" he said nervously. It was true, actually. He'd spent the last night or two at Piccolo's house without letting anyone know, so his mother was probably worried sick about him. He then turned around to take off, but as soon as his back was to the others, he froze.

Leaning his back against a sleek black car parked just outside the school gates, a lit cigarette in his hand, a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes, was Piccolo. He was dressed in a neat black suit with a plain dark tie and, if you looked close enough, you could see a pair of black leather gloves hanging halfway out of his pocket. The first thought that came to Gohan's mind was, of course, 'What the hell is he doing here?!' Before he could do anything, though, he heard Sharpner start to chuckle from behind him. "Holy shit, who called in the Men In Black?" he joked, now having something far more interesting than Gohan's alter ego to talk about. Even though he was quite a distance away, Piccolo's ears perked up a bit and his eyes shifted behind his sunglasses towards the blond human teen. Gohan took that as a sign that he should leave now, not wanting his old friend to cause a scene because of Sharpner's stupid comments.

"Yeah, ummm... that's my ride. See you guys later!" he said hastily as he ran off towards Piccolo, waiving back at the three still standing there. Sharpner had quite the surprised look on his face. "H-hey! What do you mean 'That's my ride'?! Since when does a country hick like you have the kind of cash to be driven around in a car that looks like it belongs to frickn' James Bond?!" he shouted just as Gohan reached the Namekian. He glanced up at him, but could not see past those dark sunglasses of his. The Saiyan let out a sigh, his gaze returning to the ground as he made his way around to the passenger side. Piccolo got in just after he'd buckled his seatbelt and they immediately took off.

The two of them remained absolutely silent for a good few miles as Gohan stared out the darkly tinted window. There were so many questions he felt he needed answering, but he didn't have the courage to ask any of them. He let out a sigh. He had to at least try. As far as he was concerned, anything he would say couldn't possibly make the situation any worse than it already was. He turned his head slowly to face his friend in the drivers seat. Piccolo's face remained pretty much expressionless, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. After a long moment, he finally decided to speak up. "U-umm--" "You'll be staying with me for a while, Gohan." he interrupted out of nowhere. This caught Gohan off guard. "Wh-what? What do you mean, Piccolo-san?" he asked, still very surprised. Piccolo merely shook his head a bit. "I've already talked with Chi Chi. I told her that flying back and forth between your school and the East District was too tiring for you and offered to let you stay with me. She agreed surprisingly quickly. Seems she's finally gotten over her severe distrust in me."

Gohan merely stared at Piccolo for a long while. It was true, the Namekian's house was much closer than his own, being just outside the city, but he was still very confused. he knew that couldn't be the real reason he'd done this. "But why?" he asked simply. Piccolo let out a sigh, obviously growing tired of his stupid questions. "You didn't get rid of it yet." he replied simply. Gohan immediately covered the watch on his wrist, though he knew there was no point. "I told you to ditch it for a reason, Gohan. You don't honestly think you can ever be the Great Saiyaman ever again, do you? Even clearing your name won't be enough, people will still suspect you. That's just how humans are." Gohan's grip around his wrist tightened a bit as he looked away from his mentor. "I... I don't care, Piccolo-san... I can't just sit back and do nothing when people are in trouble..."

There was a long silence after that, which made Gohan extreamly uncomfortable. No reply at all turned out to be more stressful than if Piccolo had continued to argue with him. The Saiyan resumed his previous activity of staring out the window for the rest of the ride. He watched as the city buildings disappeared, replaced by a sea of trees. Luckily, it wasn't very much longer after that before the car turned off the main road and onto the narrow dirt road that led to the Namekian's house hidden behind those trees. It was a rather nice house, one that undoubtedly cost quite a bit. Not even Gohan was stupid enough to wonder how he could afford it. He knew exactly where the money came from, which still scared him a bit.

The silence continued as the car pulled into the garage and the two got out. Piccolo had said a few words when he directed him to the room he'd be staying in, but nothing that counted as a conversation. Gohan was a bit surprised to see some of his clothes from his house folded neatly on the bed, but had finally reached the point where he just didn't give a shit anymore. The silence remained for the rest of the evening and all throughout what was quite possibly the most awkward dinner in history. Gohan's eyes stared gloomily down at his food the whole time while Piccolo ate his without so much as a glance in the Saiyan's direction. After the Namekian left the table without uttering a word, Gohan left immediately for what was now, he supposed, his room.

Gohan flopped down on the bed, ignoring the clothes that had been left there, and buried his face in the pillow. What he felt then wasn't exactly an unfamiliar feeling to him. It felt exactly like when he'd first been taken by Piccolo when they'd first met. He remembered the fear, the uncertainty of what would happen to him, wondering if he could really trust this man that had promised what he was doing was in the boy's best interests. In fact, Gohan found himself wishing it was the same situation as last time, having some stranger doing this to him. Knowing it was his most trusted friend that he was so uncertain about made it hurt even more. He didn't want to think Piccolo had changed from what he remembered, but it was quite obvious that the man had rearmed himself with the same cold, defensive wall as he had back then. That's what Gohan had hoped it was, at least. He couldn't help but blame himself for it, though. Ever since the Cell Games, he'd never once visited Piccolo. He'd seen him over at Bulma's house many times, but it wasn't like before.

Eventually, Gohan ended up drifting to sleep while trying to think of what he could do to fix all that had happened.

Gohan was woken up hours later when he heard the front door slam open. He jumped out of bed and quickly made his way out into the hall. He peeked around the corner just in time to see a rather out of breath Piccolo throw the door closed again before leaning against the wall for a moment. Bracing himself against the wall with his arm, he then made his way slowly down the other hall towards his own room. Gohan noticed he was limping slightly, favoring his right leg. He waited until he heard Piccolo's bedroom door close before emerging from his hiding place. Gohan stopped just where he'd seen the Namakian pause for a moment. It was very dark, but as he looked down he could just barely see it, a small puddle of blood had gathered on the surface of the hardwood floor. Piccolo had gotten hurt? How was that possible? His targets were only humans, weren't they? As his eyes trailed down the hall, he could see another tiny drip every now and then, but they stopped once his eyes hit the door at the end.

Gohan opened the door slowly at first, peeking in to see if Piccolo was in sight. The room was completely empty, however he could here the shower running in the bathroom. He let out a sigh and went in, closing the door behind him. He then made his way across the room and leaned his back against the wall just next to the bathroom door. He stood there like that for a long time, a thousand questions spinning around in his mind. While he was waiting, he'd answered all the obviously stupid questions himself, leaving only the important ones. Perhaps he should always be given a half hour to think before he opened his mouth. He was so busy thinking, however, that he hadn't noticed when the sudden absence of the sound of running water. Before he knew what was going on, the bathroom door had flown open and the blade of a knife buried itself just a hairs width from slicing open Gohan's neck. The Saiyan froze, not daring to even breathe, afraid of what would happen to him if he did. Suddenly, he heard Piccolo sighing before the blade was removed from the wall.

"Don't do that, dammit..." he growled in a low voice, walking forward and placing the knife on the dresser beside his bed. Gohan let out a sigh of relief, trying to convince himself not to freak out about it. It was his own fault for hiding like that on an assassin, after all. Then, remembering the blood he'd seen earlier, he decided to look up at Piccolo to try to see where he'd gotten hurt. It was quite easy to tell, actually, as he was only wearing a towel around his waist. Gohan was very confused to see that there were no visible wounds at all. He wasn't limping anymore either. He supposed the Namekian had merely healed himself while he was in the shower.

"So? What do you want?" came his deep voice once again, pulling Gohan away from his thoughts. He looked up to see Piccolo sitting at the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on the tops of his legs. He then quickly looked off to the side again, his cheeks going slightly pink. It had just occurred to him how little the Namekian was wearing. He told himself he was looking away out of respect, knowing how reluctant his friend had been to even take off his shirt in the past. Yeah. Respect. That was it. That excuse still didn't explain why he was blushing. "U-umm... I saw the blood out by the door and was wondering if you were okay..." he said, trailing off a bit. Piccolo rose a brow at him.

"I'm fine. It was nothing." he answered simply. Gohan let out a whiny little sigh. He was getting tired of those short simple answers. It made it hard to get what he really wanted out of him. "S-so... you did get hurt?" he managed to continue on. "Who were you going after that you got hurt?" His voice was starting to gain a bit more strength as he slowly got used to speaking in such an awkward situation. "No one that matters anymore." A simple answer again. How frustrating. "How'd you get hurt?" he asked, turning to face Piccolo again. The answer came almost too quickly. "Got shot." he replied, his voice remaining calm as if it was an everyday occurrence. As far as anyone knew, it just may have been.

"What?!" Gohan exclaimed, finally hearing something that genuinely shocked him again. "What do you mean you got shot?! How is that possible?! You can dodge them! I've seen you do it!" At that, Piccolo let out a sigh and shook his head a bit. "Can't dodge all the bullets all the time. Some of them are bound to hit sometime when they're all flying at you at once."

Gohan still couldn't believe it. "But you took out that one guy with no problem the first time!" he retorted. Piccolo let out a single chuckle after hearing that. "He was also the easiest hit I think I've ever done. It was almost laughable. My normal jobs are much more difficult." he replied, now staring off into space a bit. Gohan rubbed the side of his arm a bit with his hand, looking down at the ground. He really didn't want to ask his next question, but couldn't stand not knowing. "How often do you get hurt like this?"

There was a long silence in the room, as Gohan had anticipated. Piccolo stared up at the ceiling after a while. "It depends. On average, I'd say maybe once a week." Gohan looked up at Piccolo again. Far more often than he'd hoped. He lifted his back off the wall and walked forward, now standing directly in front of his old teacher. "Why?" Piccolo's eyes shifted from the ceiling to the young Saiyan's face. "Not as fast as I used to be I guess." he replied, though something told him that wasn't what Gohan meant. It was too stupid a question, even for him. "No, why are you doing this? You're killing people, and getting hurt, too. I don't understand why you'd do such a thing, and for such a long time."

Piccolo didn't answer right away, which was becoming a habit. "It's a long story." he replied finally. Another vague answer, and another forming habit. Gohan gritted his teeth. Piccolo was a bit caught off guard when Gohan suddenly grabbed onto his shoulders and pushed him backwards, pinning him down on the bed. "Stop doing that!!" he shouted, glaring down at the perplexed Namekian. "You're been dodging my questions ever since last night!! I already know that you're a hitman!! What the fuck could be so much worse than that that you're _still_ hiding everything from me?!" he shouted, finally fed up with it. Piccolo let out a sigh and looked away.

"I'm sorry, Gohan..." he said simply. Gohan waited for a long moment, hoping that wasn't it. Of course, it was. Growling a bit, the Saiyan pushed himself up off of Piccolo, stepping back. He wanted to say something so badly, but couldn't think of what he should say. There was nothing he could think of that would get through that concrete stubbornness of Piccolo's, so instead he merely dashed out of the room, not looking back.

Gohan found himself sitting on his bed for a long time, his chin resting on his knees and his arms wrapped around his legs. What the hell had happened? Everything had changed as far as he was concerned. He didn't cry, though. He was done crying. He had to fix this and no amount of his tears would help. There was only one way he'd have even a slight chance of getting where he wanted, and all of a sudden, that one thing came to him.

Piccolo hadn't even finished putting his clean clothes on when Gohan suddenly burst in the door again. The Namekian turned slowly to face him after buttoning up his pants. "Piccolo-san... I've made my decision..." he started, his eyes fixed on his old friend's. Piccolo let out a sigh, but didn't say a word. He did, however, take the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and tossed them on the bed. He expected Gohan to start a fight again. However, he was off. Way off.

"I'm going to become a hitman, too!"


End file.
